Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Oli Brown: Songs From The Road

Speechless
Thinking About Her
Manic Bloom
Next Girl
Mr Wilson
Love Is Taking Its Toll
Devil In Me
You Can Only Blame Yourself
Stone Cold

DVD

Speechless

Thinking About Her
Manic Bloom

Here I Am

Next Girl

Evil Soul

Mr Wilson
Love Is Taking Its Toll
Devil In Me
You Can Only Blame Yourself

I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know

Remedy

Stone Cold

Oli Brown is back! Of course, he has never really been away from the scene, as he has been touring constantly since the release of Here I Am just over a year ago. This new CD/DVD combination is a very welcome addition to his recorded output, capturing his high-powered rock blues on peak form.

As the title suggests, Songs From The Road (on ongoing series from Ruf; Savoy Brown released a similarly titled live album very recently) captures Oli live. The concert on the DVD was recorded at The Waterfront, Norwich and saw Oli return to his hometown. “I really wanted to record my live show in Norwich,” explained the bluesman, “as everyone there has been so good to me.”

Oli already has three fine albums under his belt - more than enough to put together a stunning live repertoire - and Songs From The Road even throws in some new material, such as Love Is Taking Its Toll.

Speechless makes for an excellent, accessible opener. One of the highlights of 2010's great statement of intent Heads I Win, Tails You Lose,Speechless represents the archetypal Oli offering: catchy, flowing, simple enough to tap along to at first listening and with plenty of scope for great guitar breaks.

Songs from Here I Am enjoy the greater prominence here, but there is still room for a triumphant Stone Cold from Oli's debut album, Open Road (2008).

The three-piece band (Oli Brown, Scott Barnes on bass and Wayne Proctor on drums) is a really tight unit, forged in the heat of constant touring. They play with great confidence and a definite swagger, but never border on arrogance.

The DVD features four more songs than the CD. The filming is great, with a very intimate feel and plenty of close ups of Oli's excellent guitar technique in action. Running at just under 100 minutes, it makes for a fine evening of entertainment.

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Still only 24, Oli Brown keeps hitting new highs and a long and highly successful career looks to be a certainty.